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Read on for more information about AustLit’s role in recording and supporting research into Australian criticism.

History of Criticism on AustLity

Since its inception, AustLit has worked to create a detailed list not only of Australian story-telling, but also of the complex critical debates around publishing, literature, print cultures, and other forms of creating and disseminating stories.

Not solely a bibliography of fiction or an index of criticism, AustLit combines the two, presenting curated lists of critical works in conjunction with the history of the works they critique.

As of early 2017, AustLit records details of more than 35,000 works of criticism, and provides access to 1700 full-text, peer-reviewed articles on Australian literature and print culture.

Exhibitions, Information Trails, and Research Projectsy

AustLit regularly collates specific subsets of our data and presents them as online exhibitions or information trails. We also support and publish research projects by AustLit staff and external researchers.

These tiles list both collections of criticism republished on AustLit and original substantive criticism published by AustLit.

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Criticism : Children's Literature

When the Children's Literature Digital Resource was established in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology and Deakin University, the aim was to produce high-quality digitised copies of early Australian children's literature and the accompanying research.

Literature of Tasmania

A critical monograph by Professor Philip Mead, beautifully illustrated with works from Anthony Stagg's private collection and other repositories, 'The Literature of Tasmania' explores the large literary output of Australia's smallest state. From Indigenous Tasmanian writing to the literature of the natural environment, from extinction to book history, the monograph reveals the richness of a specifically Tasmanian storytelling and print history.

(Image credit: John Glover's 'Hobart Town, taken from the garden where I lived', 1832. Reproduced courtesy of State Library of New South Wales.)

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Courting Blakness

A groundbreaking exhibition curated by UQ Adjunct Professor Fiona Foley, Courting Blakness was located in The University of Queensland's Great Court from 5-28 September 2014. The works at the centre of the exhibition were accompanied by a national symposium, book, and other resources, including videos. AustLit's 'Courting Blakness' collects together the exhibition's digital footprint, allowing the powerful experience to live on and form part of AustLit's BlackWords project.

The Joseph Furphy Digital Archive

'The Joseph Furphy Digital Archive' is AustLit's first foray into digital scholarly publishing. Created (and still under construction) by Dr Roger Osborne, the archive aims to provide greater access for more people to the material archive that lies behind Furphy's fiction and poetry.

As noted in the introduction:

Joseph Furphy's position in Australian literature is firmly established. Whether we know it or not, his great work Such is Life (1903) sits on the edge of every conversation or argument about the development of Australian literature, and, occasionally, it wanders to centre stage, demanding to be heard. Such is Life has served those seeking authentic Australian voices and realist depictions of bush life. It has served those who look into its complex narrative to find a proto-modernist text that resists interpretation. And it has served those who challenge, and are challenged by, its discourses of race, gender, and class.

Trauma Texts

Led by a project team from Flinders University, including Associate Professor Kate Douglas and Dr Tully Barnett Trauma Texts identifies and examines Australian trauma life narratives published between 1990 and 2015. Including autobiographies, biographies, diaries, life stories, and oral histories, the project catalogues the types of trauma represented in contemporary life narratives, including Holocaust survival, the Stolen Generations, and childhood trauma.

Resourceful Reading

'Resourceful Reading' is the overarching term for a series of five linked projects that aimed to re-examine and re-invigorate Australian literary criticism and history by integrating traditional approaches to literary studies with empirically rich methodologies including data-mining and quantitative analysis.

The projects covered contemporary anthologies, translation, asylum-seeker narratives, early twentieth-century newspaper reviews, and digital approaches to the Australian novel.

The BlackWords Essays

The BlackWords Essays were produced by Dr Anita Heiss for teachers, students, researchers, and readers: the essays highlight AustLit's BlackWords project (the most comprehensive resource of Indigenous Australian writing available) and aim to assist readers to better understand the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing and publishing on Australia’s literary landscape.